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Hiring Domestic Help And Family Well-Being In Hong Kong: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis, Adam Ka-Lok Cheung

Adam Ka-Lok Cheung

Outsourcing household tasks has become an important strategy for couples to avert the conflict between work and family roles. There is an increasing trend of domestic outsourcing, including the use of hired domestic help, in post-industrial societies. Despite the increasing popularity of outsourcing domestic tasks, the possible impact of hiring domestic help on family relations remains an important hole in our knowledge. Contributions of hiring domestic help to the employers’ family, such as averting marital conflict and improving marital quality, are often assumed in the literature but are rarely examined with empirical data, especially in a non-western context.

This paper …